Intravenous (IV) access in patients is a critical part of medical care. This access gives physicians/practitioners/nurses the ability to immediately administer and deliver medication to a patient. In emergency situations, IV access and delivery of the proper medication can save a patient's life. Therefore, in many cases, IV administration of fluids should be done as soon as possible.
IV administration of fluids is done via a catheter device. Although currently, there is widespread use of IV catheters, IV access using these catheters can be difficult. In practice, the process of IV placement and the related success of the placement vary from patient to patient. The pediatric patient presents a special challenge to IV placement because these patients and some adults do not like the thought or the feel of being stuck with a needle. Practitioners take great care to relieve any pain associated with a needle insertion by using various agents. However, many patients, usually age-dependent, do not appreciate or care for this procedure. Many factors affect the success of IV catheter placement and insertion in a child. Some of these factors include the size and course of the child's vein, the ability to keep the patient still during the insertion process, and the health professional's ability to efficiently insert the needle into the patient and float/advance the catheter into the vein of the patient. These variables cause IV catheter placement to be a difficult process that causes much stress for all parties involved, especially the patient.
The current models of IV catheters are sufficient for proper IV insertion when a patient is in a generally still position. However, when the patient is thrashing about, a simple IV insertion procedure can turn into a complicated procedure. One reason for the complication is because the patient's thrashing/movement will often require that the IV needle be repositioned in the patient one or more times. This repositioning process will generally require a health professional to reinsert the IV needle into the patient as many times as needed to get the IV needle in the proper position in the patient. Often times with a child, there may be several unsuccessful attempts at IV placement before the practitioner is successful. The level of skill of the health professionals that perform IV insertions is usually very high so the skill of the professional is normally not the reason for the unsuccessful IV attempts. The major factors in these unsuccessful IV insertion attempts are the movement of the patient and the inability to advance the catheter while a patient is moving. Combining these factors with the arduous task of placing a smaller catheter into a child's much smaller vein can make this procedure very difficult.
FIG. 1 shows a typical catheter section of a conventional angiocatheter device. This section comprises a flexible hollow tube 10 (known in the health care industry as the catheter) that is inserted into a patient's vessel. Initially this hollow tube (catheter) contains a needle. After insertion into the vein of the patient, the needle is withdrawn and thereby leaving the flexible catheter tube in the patient to supply fluids to the patient in an intravenous manner. A catheter base 11 contains one end of the catheter 10. Within the catheter base is a catheter housing 12 that actually contains the catheter end. This catheter housing has a hollow center that enables a needle to extend through the entire catheter section.
FIG. 2 is a conventional angiocatheter device shown in an expanded view. This angiocatheter has a catheter section 13 and a needle section 14. The catheter section 13 is the one illustrated in FIG. 1. The needle section has an internal housing 15, an external housing 16 and the needle 17 extending through both housings. A needle housing 18 contains the end of the needle. This needle housing is contained in the internal housing 15, but is attached to the external housing 16. The needle housing 18 connects to the external housing through a linear groove (not shown) in the internal housing. This groove runs along and completely through the external surface of the internal housing and enables the external housing 16 to move with respect to the internal housing 15. This movement of the external housing with respect to the internal controls the movement of the needle 17. FIG. 3 is an illustration of the angiocatheter illustrated in FIG. 2 in its normal configuration.
Another conventional angiocatheter design is shown in FIG. 4. This angiocatheter 19 has an outer housing 20 that contains an internal needle housing 21. Within the internal needle housing 21, is the needle 22 that is held in position in the needle housing by a spacer (not shown). The needle extends outward from the outer housing through the open end of the housing (upper end) attached to the catheter section 23. This extended portion of the needle is covered with a sheath 24. A pad 25 at the end of the upper end of the housing contains a button 26. Within the housing is a spring (not shown) that is attached to the internal needle housing 21. The other end of the spring attaches to the upper end of the outer housing and the needle 22. The spring is normally in an extended position. The button and spring serve as the retraction mechanism to retract the needle for removal after the insertion of the catheter into the patient's vessel. When the button is pressed, the extended spring is released and compresses. This compressing act retracts the needle from the catheter and patient and into the needle housing 21. Retraction of the needle leaves the catheter in the arm of the patient, as is the goal of the insertion procedure.
During the IV catheter insertion process, the health care practitioner follows these general steps:                1) Place a tourniquet on the patient's extremity to locate a vessel.        2) Prepare the patient's skin around the vessel area by wiping the location of the intended insertion with alcohol or other appropriate cleaning solution.        3) Remove the angiocatheter from the sterile package.        4) Hold the site (vessel area of the patient) secure: Practitioner holds the patient's arm or wrist; this step usually requires more than one person when the patient is a child.        5) Twist/Rotate the catheter to unlock; this step unlocks catheter section from needle section in either conventional angiocatheter design.        6) With the other hand, the practitioner finds a vein/vessel and inserts the needle.        7) When a flash of blood appears, the practitioner tries to advance/float the catheter into the vein.        8) The needle is retracted and placed in a sharp container        9) The practitioner flushes the catheter with fluid to determine if the catheter is in a good position.        10) Practitioner connects fluids to the catheter.The main problem with the method for inserting the current IV catheter into the patient is that the advancement of the catheter in step 7 generally requires the practitioner to use both hands. This step requires the practitioner to remove their hand from holding the vein area secure, to holding the needle secure in the vein. The hand used to insert the needle is now to slide the lever to advance/float the catheter into the vein. During this time, if a patient, especially a child is moving, this movement commonly results in the needle pricking the side of the vein and thus making the vein unusable. In addition, the damaged vein requires the need to find another vein and begin the insertion process over from the beginning.        
There remains a need for an IV catheter design that will enable a practitioner to hold an inserted needle in place and advance the catheter using only one hand for both tasks. A modification of the current catheter could be beneficial to patients, parents and health professional.